Trans-Siberian

[Kate Holland]

I went on the Trans-Siberian with another female friend when we were
students in 1996-97 and it was perfectly safe.  We both spoke fluent
Russian; I would say that was definitely a necessity.  We travelled second
class, and befriended the provodnik, who only put women in our
compartment.  I'm not sure if that's policy or not.  At that point we were
fairly used to living in Russia, and so were relatively unflappable and
perfectly able to understand the do's and don'ts.  For instance young women
travelling in small groups should avoid the dining cars, which are full of
drunken lecherous middle-aged men.
That means you have to buy food from the stations when the train stops,
which is never usually a problem.  I would definitely recommend this as a
travel/cultural/life experience.  The conversations we had with our fellow
travellers were fascinating.  Second class is definitely better from this
point of view, since you get to meet all kinds of people, but it is more
comfortable and safer than third class.  Obviously from a linguistic and
cultural point of view, this makes for a far richer experience than
travelling in a group.
Hope this helps,
Kate Holland

At 02:37 PM 4/5/2004 -0400, Catharine Nepomnyashchy wrote:
>I have a student who is hoping to take the Trans-Siberian Railway into
>China this summer.  Do any of you have any information on travel groups?
>Or does any one have any recent experiences that might suggest it would
>be safe or risky for two young women to take this journey alone?  Any
>information would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance, Cathy
>
>Catharine Nepomnyashchy
>Director, Harriman Institute
>Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Russian Literature and
>Chair, Slavic Department, Barnard College
>phone: (212) 854-6213
>
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Kate Holland
PhD Candidate,
Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures,
Yale University,
PO Box 208236,
New Haven
CT 06520

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